Spiffy's got you covered. You could pick up a Yamaha 2500 for well under $1k, or a 1500 for about $600 and use it as your pre amp. Gene recommended using the 2500 and an emotiva amp for a high quality seperates set up. It seems like a lot of the guys on this site are talking about the very high quality of the preout section of these receivers. Also the internal amp gives you the option of a powered second zone and since it's Yamaha you could give presence speakers a go and see how you like that setup. Also like spiffy said there are the offerings from Emotiva and outlaw for preamps inthe $1000 range.